Social Media

Now You Can Screen Calls On Your Cellphone

That landline you never use probably has caller ID showing the caller's name, but what about that mobile device you always tote around with you? Not so much.

Wednesday, T-Mobile USA is rolling out a pay-per-month service that allows its customers to start screening calls from their cellphones.

The service, called Name ID and built by Cequint, will display an incoming caller's name, phone number, and city and state, should the phoning party not already be in the user's address book.

T-Mobile, soon to be the property of AT&T, says it's the first major wireless carrier in the U.S. to support a Caller ID service that can show a caller's name.

"Before Name ID for mobile phones, deciding whether or not to answer an unfamiliar call often left customers guessing. Now Name ID allows T-Mobile customers to more easily determine which calls to answer, and whether they want to immediately add the new caller's information to their list of contacts," said Brad Duea, senior vice president, T-Mobile USA. "Providing the names of previously unknown callers simply gives our customers more control over incoming calls."

Well, it's about time a cellphone provider offered this service. What took them so long? As the popular Spiderwebs song — released in 1996 by No Doubt long before the ubiquity of the cellphone — reminds us, sometimes "No matter who calls. I gotta screen my phone calls."

Name ID costs $3.99 per month and is available now for T-Mobile customers using Samsung Exhibit 4G handsets. Additional handsets, including the myTouch 4G Slide, will support Name ID later this month.

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